Y&R, Shazam and UP announce a partnership

11 July, 2013

NEW YORK — Y&R, the iconic global advertising agency that is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, and Shazam®, the world’s leading media engagement company with more than 350 million users worldwide (100 million in the US), announced a non-exclusive partnership today to help advance the mobile activation of advertising. The partnership will also include UP, a branded content and TV production company that is part of Y&R’s innovation incubator, Spark Plug.

The companies will work together on upcoming Y&R client initiatives to deliver mobile activation experiences and solutions that drive consumer interactions with brands on the “second screens” of smartphones and tablets.
“Smartphones are increasingly becoming essential to life — a perfect bridge between the digital and physical worlds. We get and give information on our phones. We plan, shop, share, watch, travel, using them. There are huge opportunities to drive greater engagement among consumers with the right content and the right activation. That is why it is key to have great partners, which we have found in Shazam and UP,” said David Sable, Global CEO of Y&R.

He added: “Shazam has built a following of more than 350 million users with their amazing recognition technology. UP is redefining television with socially driven platforms. Together we offer creative excellence, access to unique content properties and channels and a level of activation that is enormously and uniquely powerful and accountable,” he added.

“We are excited about the possibilities that will come out of our new partnership with Y&R and UP,” said Rich Riley, CEO of Shazam. “Our proprietary technology enables brands to extend their 30-second ad into several minutes of engagement on mobile devices. By working directly with the creative teams, original and innovative campaigns with the reach of television can be combined with the power of second-screen interactivity to create unforgettable experiences. We are breaking new territory here and are collaborating with the right partners.”
Earlier this week, Shazam announced that America Movil, the largest telecommunications carrier in the Americas, invested $40 million in Shazam, which will help accelerate Shazam’s ongoing growth in music, continued expansion into television and the development of innovative new products.

As part of the relationship announced today, Y&R will work with Shazam’s advertising team to offer the agency’s clients the Shazam for TV platform. The platform uses audio content recognition technology in the Shazam App to quickly determine consumer interest in Shazam-enabled advertisements. This essentially makes TV ads ‘clickable.’ With Shazam and UP resources embedded in Y&R client teams, the intent is to help brands apply this wealth of resources to different campaigns and audio-based creative elements on TV and radio, branded video content and in-store experiences, among others.

UP is part of Y&R’s innovation incubator, The Spark Plug, which offers startup companies office space within Y&R in exchange for access to their innovating thinking and products. UP has been a partner to Shazam over the past year, working together to build custom TV-activated experiences for brands during the Olympics, MTV VMAs and Grammys, among others.

Terms of the partnership are not being disclosed; however, significant resources will be dedicated by all parties to drive appropriate adoption among the brands served by all of the partners. UP will also make all of their TV content Shazam-ready for brand integrations.

About Y&R Y&R is one of the leading global marketing communications companies. It is made up of the iconic Y&R Advertising agency; VML, one of the leading global digital agencies, and iconmobile, a premier mobile marketing company.

Y&R's founder, Raymond Rubicam, believed that the company's mission was to Resist the Usual on behalf of our clients. Today, that is kept alive by melding top-flight creativity with innovation to create new consumer experiences.

Y&R's largest agency, Y&R Advertising, has 187 offices in 91 countries around the world, with clients that include, Campbell's Soup Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Virgin Atlantic, Xerox, Revlon, GAP, Land Rover, and Telefonica, among many others.

About Shazam Shazam is the world’s leading media engagement company with more than 350 million users in 200 countries and adding another 10 million new users each month. With the industry’s unlimited, fastest tagging in the Free and premium Encore Apps on iOS and Android devices, Shazam is the best way for people to discover, explore, buy, and share more music, TV shows and branded content they love.

Shazam makes it easy for people to share their discoveries with their friends on Facebook using the Shazam Friends feature, as well as on Twitter and Google+. For people who don't yet have the Shazam application on their smartphone, it is available for FREE on every major platform and can be found on iTunes App Store, Google play, Amazon App Store, AT&T’s AppCenter, Verizon VCast app store, Nokia Store, Windows Phone Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and GetJar.

About Shazam for TV™ The Shazam for TV™ service was expanded in September 2012 to include all US nationwide programming on 160+ channels, essentially every show on every channel. In the last year, Shazam for TV Advertising, which started in North America, was expanded to the UK, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. The service is already generating double-digit millions in revenues, with Shazam for TV Advertising integrated into over 250 TV ad campaigns since launch, including those for more than 150 A-list global brands such as Pepsi, Toyota, Barclays, Sony Entertainment and many more.

For further information about Shazam Entertainment visit www.shazam.com and @ShazamNews. You can also follow us on Facebook or Google+. For daily music updates follow the Shazam Blog and @Shazam.

About Unconventional Partners UNCONVENTIONAL PARTNERS (www.unconventionalpartners.com) is a team of experienced unconventional thinkers who build social and video-based, multi-platform consumer experiences for multiple brands to participate. Unconventional Partners was founded in January 2009 by Mark Berryhill and Michael Kelley. Prior to the creation of UP, Berryhill served as VP of Creative Affairs and Programming for Meredith Video Solutions. Kelley was formerly a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he spent nearly two decades in digital media as well as a senior leadership role in the firm’s marketing and brand efforts.